Canada sued for ignoring its own Kyoto law

Posted: 25 June 2008
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Canada last week became the first country ever to be brought to court for failing to comply with its legal commitments to combat global warming.

Friends of the Earth Canada is suing the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper for following a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases that fails to meet Canada's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

The lawsuit is the first in the world to seek enforcement of the protocol, an international treaty ratified by 180 countries, including Canada.

Heard in Federal Court in Toronto , the legal action could force the government to create a new plan to reduce Canada 's greenhouse gases 6% below 1990 levels, a legally binding target the current government says the country cannot meet.

The Canadian government was required to pass binding, final regulations in December 2007, but has not.

Of the 38 industrialized nations with binding international targets under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is the only country that has indicated that it does not intend to meet its obligations.

Under the Liberal government of Jean Chretien, Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol on December 17, 2002, taking on the legal commitment to reduce emissions by six percent below 1990 levels by the end of 2012.

But when the present Harper government took office in February 2006, Canada backed away from its Kyoto Protocol commitment.

On April 26, 2007, the Harper government announced its Turning the Corner strategy, which set greenhouse gas reduction targets to a different target – 20% below 2006 levels by 2020.

Meeting this goal would leave Canada 39% off target with the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 and would not achieve the Kyoto target until 2025, if at all.

Federal lawyers have argued in a legal brief on the case that the adequacy of the Turning the Corner strategy is "not justiciable." They hold that Parliament, not the courts, must resolve the issue.

The Federal Court is expected to rule on the case this summer or early fall.